Thoughts for the Day, MLK, Jr. Day, 2026: It is time to make good trouble in honor of King's legacy of peaceful protests

His words from 60 years ago are apropos today.

Remembering MLK on his day.

Excerpts from MLKs speech on December 10, 1964, in Oslo, Norway accepting the Nobel Peace Prize.

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.

After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time – the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression…. nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace,

The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama to Oslo bears witness to this truth….This same road has opened for all Americans a new era of progress and hope. It has led to a new Civil Rights Bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened into a superhighway of justice….

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the “isness” of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal “oughtness” that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him…I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today’s mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. …I believe that…nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land… I still believe that we shall overcome!

This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom….

Today I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication to humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my heart I am aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally.

Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possible….So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit… You honor the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. Most of these people will never make the headline and their names will not appear in Who’s Who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we live – men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization – because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness’ sake.

I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners – all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty – and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.

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Donald Trump’s text earlier this week to the prime minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Stare.

Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT.

The contrast between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Donald Trump is striking. One earned the Nobel Peace Prize, the other wanted it and showed his stripes when he didn’t win it.

Speak up and speak out. It is time to make “good trouble”

Thank you to a subscriber of Thoughts for the Day for bringing this to my addition. Here are excerpts from Rober Reich’s blog on January 18 as he remembers MLK, Jr.’s message over 60-years ago.

Friends,

Tomorrow, we honor the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr….I write this more in sorrow than in anger. All told, I feel profound sorrow for America.

• Sorrow for the people of Minneapolis who are enduring this Trump-made hell. Sorrow for Renee Good’s three children and wife.

• Sorrow for Greenlanders and Venezuelans and others around the world fearing …

• Sorrow for everyone justifiably worried about the future of America and the planet because of him.

I’m old enough to remember when Martin Luther King Jr.’s mission seemed impossible. Just as the mission you and I must now engage in…may seem impossible at this moment.

Martin Luther King Jr. accomplished more than anyone thought he could when he began. He did it with patience and perseverance, with the strength of conviction. He did it with calmness, reason, and quiet passion. And he did it with what one of his assistants, the late great congressman John Lewis, called “good trouble.”

Good trouble meant mobilizing the nation against racial injustice by making sure almost everyone saw its horrors….I remember watching Bull Connor, commissioner of public safety in Birmingham… use firehoses and attack dogs against Black people…. who were peacefully standing up for their rights.

I’ve been thinking of those scenes as I’ve watched …armed agents pulling people out of cars… demanding proof of citizenship. Masked agents….using tear gas and pepper spray, shooting innocent people exercising their First Amendment rights to protest.

This time it isn’t Bull Connor and his racist goons. It’s Donald Trump, JD Vance, Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller…..It’s armed agents of the president of the United States who are bullying and brutalizing people. This time it’s Trump and those around him making up stories to justify this brutality, lying about the protester’s motives, and threatening even more brutality.

Take a wider look and you see their lawless bullying on a different scale:

• · A criminal investigation of the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board for failing to lower interest rates as fast as Trump wants.

• · Criminal investigations of U.S. senators and representatives for telling America’s soldiers that they don’t have to follow illegal orders. Criminal investigations of the governor of Minnesota and mayor of Minneapolis for refusing to cooperate with Trump’s brown shirts.

• · The Justice Department searching the home of a Washington Post reporter and seizing her laptops and other devices.

• · Trump raising tariffs on our trusted allies — until and unless they support him in taking over Greenland. Greenland!

I remember the good trouble that occurred 65 years ago. I believe it’s time for it again. Time for all of us — every one of us — to cause it.

What kind of good trouble

• · A huge national demonstration

• · A giant general strike

• · A coordinated effort to get all our employers, our churches and synagogues, our unions, our universities to condemn this madness.

• · A loud demand that our members of Congress impeach and convict him of his high crimes.

There is no longer any neutral place to stand. Either you’re standing up for democracy, the rule of law, and social justice, or you’re complicit in the mayhem Trump has unleashed.

That, for me, is the lesson of all this.

Trump and his people have brought us to this point. They are the Bull Connors of today.

• We stand with the people of Minneapolis

• We stand with the citizens of Greenland and Venezuela. With Canadians and Europeans.

• With every nation now threatened by Trump’s….abuses of power.

• We stand proudly and sturdily everywhere the bright lights of freedom and truth still shine.

We will overcome the darkness of Trump... We dedicate ourselves to causing good trouble -- ending this mayhem and building a new and better America.

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You cannot make this stuff up.

In an interview with New York Times reporters on January 7, Trump explained that he wants not simply to work with Greenland, as the U.S. has done successfully for decades, but to own it. “Ownership is very important,” he told David E. Sanger.

“Why is ownership important here?” Sanger asked.

“Because that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success,” Trump answered. “I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do, whether you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document, that you can have a base.”

Katie Rogers asked: “Psychologically important to you or to the United States?”

Trump answered: “Psychologically important for me. Now, maybe another president would feel differently, but so far I’ve been right about everything.”

Quote of the Day: I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time – the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression…. nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation.” Marting Luther King, Jr. in his acceptance speech for being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Orchid of the Day: Martin Luther King, Jr. His message from 60 years ago resonates in today’s United States.

Onion of the Day: President Trump’s text to Norway prime minister Jonas Gahr Stare. See above.

Question of the Day: Have you ever read anything as bizarre from a president as Trump’s text to Norway prime minister, Jonas Gahr Stare?

Lyrics of the Day: Anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed lotta people, but it seems the good they die young
I just looked around and he’s gone

Didn’t you love the things that they stood for?
Didn’t they try to find some good for you and me?
And we’ll be free. Some day soon, it’s gonna be one day

Lyrics of the Day for January 15, 2026. OHIO by Neal Young

Video of the Day: Abraham, Martin and John - Lyrics - Dion

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